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Desert ‘carbon Farming’ To Curb CO2
Desert ‘carbon farming’ to curb CO2
1 August 2013
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By Matt McGrath
Environment reporter, BBC News
Scientists state that planting great deals of jatropha trees in desert locations could be an method of suppressing emissions of CO2.
Dubbed “carbon farming”, researchers say the idea is economically competitive with modern carbon capture and storage tasks.
But critics state the idea might be have unpredicted, negative effects consisting of driving up food prices.
The research has been released, external in the journal Earth System Dynamics.
Seeds of modification
Jatropha curcas is a plant that came from Central America and is very well adapted to harsh conditions including extremely arid deserts.
It is already grown as a biofuel, external in some parts of the world due to the fact that its seeds can produce oil.
In this study, German scientists showed that one hectare of jatropha might record approximately 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year. The scientists based their quotes on trees presently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.
“The outcomes are frustrating,” stated Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.
“There was excellent growth, an excellent reaction from these plants. I feel there will be no issue trying it on a much bigger scale, for example ten thousand hectares in the start,” he stated.
According to the scientists a plantation that would cover 3 percent of the Arabian desert would take in all the CO2 produced by cars and trucks and trucks in Germany over a 20 year duration.
The researchers say that a critical aspect of the strategy would be the schedule of desalination facilities. This means that at first, any plantations would be confined to coastal locations.
They are hoping to develop larger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other schemes that just offset the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha might be an excellent, short-term service to climate modification.
“I believe it is an excellent idea because we are actually extracting carbon dioxide from the environment – and it is entirely various in between drawing out and preventing.”
According to the scientist’s estimations the costs of suppressing carbon dioxide by means of the planting of trees would be in between 42 and 63 euros per tonne. This makes it competitive with other strategies, such as the more high tech carbon capture and storage, external (CCS).
A variety of countries are presently trialling this technology, external but it has yet to be deployed commercially.
Growing jatropha not only soaks up CO2 however has other benefits. The plants would assist to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be gathered for biofuel state the researchers, offering an economic return.
“Jatropha is ideal to be developed into biokerosene – it is even better than biodiesel,” said Prof Becker.
But other experts in this location are not persuaded. They indicate the truth that in 2007 and 2008 great deals of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, particularly in Africa. But a number of these endeavors ended in tears,, external as the plants were not extremely successful in coping with dry conditions.
Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign manager for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was when seen as the terrific, green hope the truth was really different.
“When jatropha was introduced it was viewed as a wonder crop, it would grow on scrubland or limited land,” she stated.
“But there are typically people who require marginal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that location – we would not class the land as minimal.”
She explained that jatropha is extremely hazardous and can pollute the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she likewise had issues about the fairness of the idea.
“It is still somebody else’s land. Why enter and grow these enormous plantations to handle an issue these people didn’t in fact trigger?”
Follow Matt on Twitter, external.
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Related web links
Universität Hohenheim
European Geosciences Union
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